


we're in our twenties

by ehmuh



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:41:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29262972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ehmuh/pseuds/ehmuh
Summary: my own take on the quote from the time jump trailer. living in a somewhat established post time jump world. (or, in which, I wrote this at 6 am on a saturday morning after not sleeping for 14 hours)
Relationships: Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper, Archie Andrews/Betty Cooper
Kudos: 14





	we're in our twenties

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone! so this is my first fic ever, and it's basically my au spin on the quote from the time jump???? it's a lil rushed because i.. gave up in the middle but i won't write a lot, just please be nice to me!! **a disclaimer** : this is how i write Barchie, so understandably it might not be _exactly_ how they act. :)
> 
> find me on tumblr! @ [barchiee](https://barchiee.tumblr.com)

**“We’re in our twenties,”** a light scoff parting Archie’s lips while his eyes lingered downward to watch Betty’s lips. “It's not like things are like they were seven years ago, right? Sure, there are a few bumps in the road that still have to be smoothed out, but we finally get the chance to smooth those out— _together_ , _Betts._ ” the familiar nickname rolling off of his tongue without hesitation, he rested his body against the side of the copying machine. He searched for an answer in her eyes while his hand reached out to grasp hers gently, his thumb running over her knuckles lovingly.

Stifling the _teenage-girl_ screams that would have been erupting out of her mouth if the younger version of herself that watched her _then-best friend_ admirably through his window was present; Betty placed her head down to avert his gaze. “ _Arch_ …” She said with a sigh, mind racing at the events from the last few years rewinding in her head. 

The last time the two saw the other, Archie was being whisked away on the army bus that had taken him away from everyone— _notably her_. It came as a shock when he first revealed the news that he was choosing to join, but it was a bigger shock that **she had to find out like everyone else in his life**. It wasn’t a lie that she had told him whatever was going on between them romantically had to come to a grinding halt, but... **she still cared**. She still felt close to him even when she wasn’t. Though she’s almost positive he tried to think about how everyone would react, it didn’t make the heartbreak hurt any less. 

“I don’t know if this… _us_.. is something I’m _certain_ about for the future.” She spoke quietly, leaning over him to grab the sheet of paper she originally needed to copy, laying it flatly on top of the copies.

Part of her had hoped that it’d register that her words were reciting some of his own from their past. She started on her mission to make it back to her classroom, emotionally stable in one piece, stopping at the lounge table to gather her things.

“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” Archie questioned in a tone that could be heard by anyone nearby, his brows drawing together. His feet tracked behind hers, hurriedly putting a binder filled with graded papers. “This is about Jughead and Veronica, _isn’t it_? Who cares what _they_ think? If anything, **they’ve moved on** —she has that Chad guy who gives off major _Leonardo DiCaprio_ stock character vibes, and Jughead has.. _well..._ I hear that his novels are best-selling, but come on, we all saw that coming from a mile away.”

Flattening her sweater down, she met his face eye-to-eye. “It’s not _just_ them, Archie. It’s... **this town**.” The volume of her voice growing, she shook her head. “As much as I love it deep down, what happens if someone finds out how, _which by the way is inevitable,_ to bring funding back to the school to where we all have to go back to the lives where we couldn’t even follow through on a yearly pact for _our_ friends? It’s not like my _confidential_ job will allow _layaway_ for a relationship in Riverdale.” 

Archie parted his lips to make his typical hero speech but instead chose to exhale a sharp breath. Taking a step closer to her to fill the line of space between them, he watched the door where students passed by, some that were his students. “ **Then I’ll come with you** , we can make this work. Hell, I’ll even do the badass _ninja video game training_ you did. I already have the badges and the abs needed, you know?” 

“That’s… _cute_ , but I can’t have you do that. Besides, it takes time to learn to do what I do, Arch. I don’t _need_ you to waste years on something you’re **not** happy doing. You’ve put a lot of work already into something that shouldn’t require you to work any harder on a new career.” She lets out a small giggle at first in awe of his offer, and then it changes to a low murmur.

He whispers, blowing his cheeks out while her eyes roll jokingly in response. “For the first time in a _long_ time, I’m happy whenever I’m around **you**. When I see you first thing in the morning, it’s like... _Damn_. **I missed that**.” His argument resulted in her hand moving against his chest to push him away softly. If the colleagues in the lounge were watching closely, they’d think Archie and Betty were a married couple that was just carelessly flirting. 

However, Betty’s hand strayed for a few more seconds than it normally should have, both of them exchanging looks that could’ve ended with them sharing another kiss—this time in front of their colleagues—and Betty wasn’t sure if she was prepared for the sea of emotions that would bring. She was the first to exit the Teacher’s Lounge to avoid Archie seeing her cheeks reddening, walking down the hall to her classroom. 

Hearing his footsteps tracking along not far behind, a temporary smug smile tugged against her lips. “You can’t possibly be serious, _right_? That whole thing about being happy around _me_?” 

“I am! Really. More serious than I consider fighting with that guy dressed up as a bear that one time,” He said chuckling, threading a hand through his hair. “Have you normally _always_ walked this fast?”

“Can’t keep up?” Betty exclaimed, glancing behind her. “And here I thought the army was supposed to make you _faster_.” Rocking back and forth on her feet, she tilted her head towards the direction of her classroom. “C’mon.” She offered, placing her hand on the doorknob to enter. She walked directly to the class whiteboard, putting the eraser in her hand to get rid of her notes from the last class.

“ **All I want is a _real_ chance**. One chance. When we were teenagers, we _didn’t_ get that,” Archie rambled, pacing towards Betty’s desk. As a sudden reflex of being so comfortable with her, he propped himself up in her desk chair. “Not that I’m blaming you when that’s _my_ fault. I promise you won’t regret it—and this is a promise that _will_ stick. With all of my heart, I believe that I _can_ try to be good enough for you _now_.” 

“Not funny, Archie.” Betty kindly scolded him, allowing the eraser to linger against the cold surface before placing it down on the metal bar. “I wasn’t trying to be.” Archie soothed with a sincere look, twiddling his thumbs together.

“Up, please.” She pointed to him, extending her finger to motion him towards her. Betty kept her guard up for as long as she attempted to, but now feeling as if she just needed to give in to what had been one of her longest living fantasies of them being a power couple—this time being a… _teacher power couple_? The sea of emotions from earlier were being spread thin.

“Ah! _Right._ Sorry about... _that_.” He apologized. Rising, he pulled up his bag on his shoulder, walking towards her. Archie gave her a few meters of space, part of him nearly _dying_ to close the gap again, disregarding any other living bodies that may come inside the room.

“Hey, it’s okay. But, this chance you keep talking about; What _exactly_ did you have in mind?” She casually recalled, biting down softly on her bottom lip, her eyes moved to his.

“Uh…” Archie’s voice started shakily, most of it from being entirely enamored by Betty Cooper. “Grilled cheese. Date. Pop’s. Milkshakes. Old times.” He managed to get out as she raised her eyebrows with a slow reassuring nod for him to finish his thought. “Date at Pop’s with grilled cheeses and milkshakes like old times, just us. _Holy shit_. That’s never happened to me before. _Wow._ Thanks for being patient with me, Betts.” Shaking his head, his eyes watched her teeth perfectly rest against her lip.

A giggle had followed, her eyes dilating a tad at the sight ahead of her. “No worries, Arch. Happens to the best of us.” Betty decided to be the one to close the gap this time, her black converse lining up against his; back facing the open door. “It’s a date. But, no fancy clothes or anything like that. If it’s anything like old times, we’ll just bring ourselves and _nothing_ else.”

“Seriously?!” He asked while his bottom lip trembling at feeling the rubber of her shoe tap on his. “Is it weird to kiss before our _first_ official date?”

“Why not? **We’ve done it before** … _Technically_ , our first _official_ date was when you invited me up to your treehouse after school for animal crackers and apple juice when we were kids—so this is definitely... _different_.” She snickered, resting her hand on the cold metal to keep herself steady with a tough gulp being swallowed.

“Pfft. In my defense, you _loved_ that! And when my dad came up to tell us it was time to come down, you didn’t want to leave. Practically locked to my leg.” Archie battled back innocently, a smirk spreading. “Oh, is that right? I was locked to _your_ leg?! Is that why you walked me home and begged _my_ mom to stay for dinner… that memory just _doesn’t_ exist?” She laughed.

“Okay, so maybe it’s a little fuzzy, it was over a decade ago...” His eyes squinting, scratching his head lightly. “So.. that kiss?”

“Ah.. that kiss.” She tucked a strand of loose hair behind her ear, leaning in to almost brushing her lips against his. The void was so silent that they could hear the other’s rapid heartbeat and heavy breaths, both of them slowly shutting their eyes closed. Archie’s hands focused on snaking around her hips, bringing her body as close as he could. 

Meanwhile, Betty’s top priority was cupping his face, grazing her thumb across his freshly shaven cheek. They had completely forgotten that the door was wide open.

A voice echoed in the room, interrupting whatever moment was going on between Archie and Betty. A student from Betty’s class that started in five minutes. “—Ms. Cooper! I’m not sure if you’ve had a moment before everyone else came in, but about that Hamlet lesson yesterday… _Oh_. Mr. Andrews?” 

The two teachers broke apart quickly, trying to make sure it looked like nothing had happened. Well, nothing had happened.. _yet_. While they taught at a high school, where both had spent half of their time walking in on teens kissing, they wanted to make sure their students respected them enough... _If they had any respect to give, that is._

Archie fumbled with his bag as Betty paced forward to the student to hide Archie’s figure. “ _Olivia!_ Good afternoon! Oh... Oh my gosh. I was just… _assisting_ Mr. Andrews with a collaborative project we’re working on for our classes— _together_. We thought we could use it as an opportunity to help you guys to learn both English and History!” She came up with that excuse on a whim, clearly nervous that Olivia, her student, had seen something she shouldn’t have. “Isn’t that what we were doing, Mr. Andrews?” She looked back, shooting him an endearing smile.

First of all, Archie was seriously impressed and in awe of her way of making excuses. He was more determined to make their date go as amazing as possible because with this new ‘collaborative project’ they’re going to be working on, they needed to not be weird around each other. The thought of spending more time with her? _A dream_. Second of all, he had no idea how English and History would mesh together in terms of creating information to be planted inside the kids’ heads. Finally, he **seriously** needed to say _something_ so that they wouldn’t look so suspicious.

“ _Duh!_ We were just..” He tried so hard not to make himself appear so panicked, but he was in fact, panicked. He flipped over the opening of his bag, grabbing a sticky note and a pen out. “..Looking over some notes we had made last week. A bunch of good stuff here.” He flashed the blank sticky note pad to the two standing in front of him. 

Archie quickly realized it was blank—his eyes widening as he tried to come up with something with an invisible lightbulb above his head. Clicking the top of his pen, he wrote a message for Betty to find after this situation was over, walking towards to slip the note in the back of her hand. Olivia most likely noticed their hands lingering for a second _too_ long, but once that was done, he stuffed the supplies back in his bag.

“You can trust me. _I’ve seen Glee._ You guys are _so_ adorable if you ask me. Finn and Rachel for the win, B-T-W.” Olivia said rather confidently, making the pair exchange rather confused looks. The younger girl walked to her seat, placing out her binder designated for Betty’s class.

“Right, well... if you could _please_ keep this between us three for now... We don’t need _another_ widespread hashtag.” Archie blurted out more aggressively than intended, mostly to protect Betty from carrying the weight of the moment on her shoulders.

“What he _means_ to say.. Olivia,” Betty trailed as her eyes were giving Archie mini daggers, lightly shuffling her elbow against his rib. “Is that we’re sorry you had to walk in on us. An inappropriate act on our part.” 

“Actually _Bett_ — **Ms. Cooper** , I’m not _that_ sorry. I’m _only_ sorry we almost got caught _agai_ -” Archie replied. Betty rammed her elbow a little harder this time, causing him to let out a small grunt. Archie coughed, running his fingers across his lips. The same lips that could have been on Betty’s right now. “No, no— _she’s right_. We’re sorry, Olivia.”

The teen jokes, clearly kidding. “Not a big deal, Mr. Andrews, you’re lucky I wasn’t Principal Lodge—though I am curious to know who has seen you kiss _the other times_. Just give me a good grade on this Friday’s World War II quiz and we’ll call it even, right?” 

“Ha! Keep dreaming, kid.” Archie chuckled, sending a friendly wink as he headed for her door. 

Betty could have admitted to the world that this was one of the moments of today where she was falling back in love with Archie, but that’d come _later_. She was more lost in his charm than Olivia pluralizing the word ‘ _times_ ’.

The bell rang loudly across the halls for the other students to come back from lunch and onto their next class, causing Betty’s heart to pound while she was kicked out of her daydreaming.

“Would you look at the time! _Archie_ \-- **Mr. Andrews** , thank you so much for stopping by. I’ll get back to you on that note you made. I look forward to working with you and your students.” She held up the sticky note, still laying flat between her fingers. 

“ _I’ll see you around_ , Ms. Cooper. Olivia: I hope you’ll be on time for my class like how you are with Ms. Cooper, you know? I feel like this was a genuine bonding experience for us. I might have to sit you in front now so I become your favorite.” Archie boasted.

“I’d be careful there, Mr. Andrews. Once you become her favorite, she’ll start paying attention in _your_ class,” Betty teased, facing towards the student. “Kidding, she’s always paid attention to my class.”

Olivia contested with her nose scrunched. “What gives you two the idea that _Mr. Jones_ isn’t my favorite? He lets me write _whatever I want_ in Creative Writing. Plus, he’s a best-selling author—so he’s my best chance at getting recognized.”

Archie sends Betty a sly smirk. “You _do_ understand you’re talking about a man nicknamed Jughead outside of school, yeah? He used to be a total _know-it-all_ when we were your age.”

Betty gasps. “Archie!” Quickly correcting herself, she sticks her tongue out at him, shielding the side of her face that Olivia was near. “Mr. Andrews, we’re not _that_ old.”

“Yeah, yeah. **I get it.** I’m out of here.” The smirk remains, this time fading into the enamored smile he had on earlier. “See you later.”

She notices that he’s _more_ sincere and less comedic at this moment, and she chooses to treasure it and file it away in her heart’s scrapbook. “See you.”

Archie dashes off to his classroom while Betty returns to her desk, chasing her fingers through her hair. She almost forgets that he wrote something on the sticky note, sticking it down on her desk calendar.

_It reads, mostly in a crazed scribble._ ‘drive u home later? :) we’re _unfurnished_. :*’

She hides her face in the palms of her hands to avoid Olivia seeing her blush. A giggle being made at the dedicated attempt to spell ‘unfinished’. She’d been carpooling with Veronica since Betty hasn’t necessarily had the time to do the work on Alice’s old car she inherited in between taking on the job as the English teacher. Betty’s not sure how he knew, but she imagines that Veronica and he had talked about it.

Her other students storm into the classroom like a school of fish, finding their seats. “Everything okay, Ms. Cooper?” One asks.

She takes her face out of her hands and looks around to the student who asked. “Yeah. _Everything’s perfect_.”

Betty takes the last moments before her teaching to shoot him a quick text. She takes a photo of the note, sending it as an attachment with the following: “ _might need to go to that furniture store by RIVW’s studio on our way home so we’ll be furnished. lol_ 😘”

She hits the blue upward arrow with no regrets.


End file.
